Seton Hall Magazine, Winter 2000 - Seton Hall University

Rebuilding Civil Society: Rebirth
of Volunteerism and the Collaborative Spirit
BY ROSEANNE M. MIRABELLA ’76, PH.D.
Asthe present century comes to
a close, life in our society can
be characterized as hectic and
stressful. Corporate downsizing has
left fewer individuals to handle more
complex and difficult problems. Modern
technology has provided us with ease
of access to more information increasing
our workload — not reducing our
burden as was promised. Two-parent
working families juggle responsibilities
and schedules to provide for their children’s
physical, emotional and spiritual
needs, while laboring to maintain dual
careers that require longer hours, more
travel and lengthy commutes. Single
parents struggle to be both mother and
father to their children, while maintaining
sole responsibility as breadwinner.
The stay-at-home parent, constantly on
the go to fulfill the duties of the “soccer
mom,” has a full schedule that would
rival that of a Fortune 500 executive.
Single individuals, childless couples
and empty nesters have not managed
to escape the frenetic pace of our times,
working 60-hour weeks with the goal of
early retirement to the “good life.”
In the next century, we will be drawn
away from this frenzied existence to a
new way of life. This redirection will
result from our increasing disenchantment
with the fast-paced road we are
traveling. More of us will opt to telecommute,
job share and cut back on our
work hours, freeing up time for other
activities. We will have more time to
spend with our families, more time for
hobbies and creative pursuits, and more
time for our communities. Our human
propensity to be associated with something
larger than ourselves — something
that will endure beyond our lifetimes —
will draw many of us into community
service activities. Some of us will volunteer
for activities related to our children:
coaching youth sports teams, joining the
PTA or serving on committees at church.
Others will volunteer to build homes
for the homeless, provide food for the
hungry and serve as mentors for those
without role models. Pollsters noted an
increase in this type of volunteerism
during the latter half of the 1990s.
All of our communities will experience
this growth in civil society —
from inner cities to outlying suburbs
to remote rural areas. As activity in this
arena grows, we will see an increased
use of partnerships and collaborations
to solve traditional problems such as
poverty, air pollution and inadequate
schools. The public policy failures of
our past have taught us that we cannot
succeed without the cooperation of
others, that our community’s success is
intricately connected to those residing
in close proximity.
Collaborations among urban and suburban
dwellers, nonprofit and for-profit
organizations, and previously segregated
ethnic and racial groups will appear.
C o m m u n i t y
“Our human propensity
to be associated
with something
larger than ourselves
— something that
will endure beyond
our lifetimes —
will draw many of us
into community
service activities.”
The seed has
been planted in
urban New
Jersey for this
type of collaborative
with the construction
of the New Jersey Performing Arts
Center in Newark, achieved through the
efforts of philanthropists, businesspeople,
nonprofit organizations and government.
This type of collaborative effort
will be increasingly widespread, and
the results of these efforts will redefine
community in the 21st century.
Roseanne M. Mirabella ’76,
Ph.D., is director of the Nonprofit
Sector Resource Institute
of New Jersey and co-director of
the Institute for Service Learning,
which recently was included
in The Templeton Guide: Colleges That
Encourage Character Development.
WINTER 2000 19